Rating: 
Summary: Read before seeing "The Passion" if you can
Review: The visions of Sister Emmerich, as transcribed by a local priest in the early 1800's, are deeply moving. I became interested in reading the "Dolorous Passion" when I heard that Mel Gibson had used it as a source for "The Passion". Some observations about the book and the film:
The book actually contains far more graphic violence than the film. The brutal treatment of Our Lord's final hours is related in excruciating detail. If anything, Gibson sanitized the story somewhat by skipping over some of the action and not dwelling as much as Emmerich on the attitudes of the bloodthirsty throng. I could find no anti-Semitism in the book. If Emmerich sees anyone as being responsible for Jesus' death, it is Satan himself. Time and time again she describes how Satan takes full possession of the angry mob and Roman soldiers as their blood lust reaches full crescendo. In the film, Pilate (I thought) is portrayed as a somewhat noble character with a deeply troubled conscience. In the book, he is depicted as pathetically weak, duplicitous and cowardly, content to sacrifice innocent blood just to keep himself out of trouble. The timeless quality of Our Lord's sacrifice comes across powerfully in the book. In Gesthemani, Sister Emmerich tells us how all of our sins-past, present, and future-appear before Him, as he takes them all upon Himself for our salvation. With all the meticulous detail of the twelve hours, it is easy to forget that for God, past, present and future are all one: our sins today hurt Him just as much as those committed by those who clamored for his crucifixion. That is a tough concept to get across in a film, and maybe a reason for the charges of anti-Semitism brought against it. On this topic and others, I think the book can help to clarify the message of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Completely touching
Review: This book is at least as touching, if not moreso, than the movie "Passion of the Christ." The main thing is, the movie focuses more on the physical sufferings of Jesus. Not that that's a bad thing of course. But once you realize what Jesus suffered for you physically, it would be a good idea to look more into the mental aspect. "The Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" expands on all of Jesus's sufferings, physical and mental. Besides meditations on Jesus's Passion, this book also includes a biography of Anne Catherine Emmerich. And, just a side note, I don't believe Emmerich was anti-semitic. Yes, she refers to "wicked Jews" but by that she means the group of Jews who actually shouted for Jesus's death, not all Jews for all of time. If you actually read the whole book, you'll realize this.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, if you are a bible thumper
Review: This is a book attributed to Sister Emmerich. I write "attributed" because the Catholic Church's official opinion is that it could have been written by another person and attributed to Emmerich. Therefore the church does not give this book the weight that would normally be granted to it. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how many of the scenes and dialogue from this book were used by Mel Gibson. For me, this was the interesting part of the book. I have a waiting list of friends wanting to borrow my copy.
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